Recently, demands of space-saving, downsizing, and thinning of an image forming apparatus have been further increased. In response to these demands, it is possible to thin an image forming apparatus of an in-body paper discharging type that includes a discharge tray between an image reading unit (a scanner unit) and an image forming unit by narrowing down its sheet discharge space. However, narrowing down the sheet discharge space causes a problem that a paper sheet is difficult to be extracted.
In particular, assume that a surface of an apparatus main body facing a user standing position is a front surface side. With the image forming apparatus with an in-body paper discharge structure where a sheet discharge space opens to the front surface side of the apparatus main body and a paper sheet is discharged from a back surface side (a back side) to the front surface side (the front side) of the apparatus main body, only a distal end part of the paper sheet to be discharged is seen from the opening of the sheet discharge space. Accordingly, there is a problem that narrowing the sheet discharge space making the extraction of the paper sheet more difficult.
Therefore, image forming apparatuses disclosed in Patent Literatures 1 and 2 are provided as one method for solving this problem.
The image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is an image forming apparatus of the in-body paper discharging type with an opening for a sheet discharge space at a front side. As illustrated in FIG. 2 of Patent Literature 1, a recording paper creating unit (an image forming unit) is arranged so as to project to the front side with respect to an image reading unit (a scanner unit). Moreover, a lower surface at the front side of the image reading unit is formed to an inclined surface inclining so as to expand toward the opening.
Similarly, the image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is an image forming apparatus of the in-body paper discharging type with an opening for a sheet discharge space at a front side. As illustrated in FIG. 3 of Patent Literature 2, the image forming apparatus includes an inclined portion (or a step) between a lower-surface-front-portion supporting unit, which is a top board, and a lower-surface-rear-portion supporting unit (a lower projecting portion supporting unit) that support an image reading unit (an image scanner). The image forming apparatus where the lower-surface-front-portion supporting unit is formed at a higher position than the lower-surface-rear-portion supporting unit using this inclined portion (or the step) is disclosed.